Frederick w



(No Model.)

P. W. SIMONS. METHOD OF KNITTING AND FORMING HOSE. No. 468,212.

Patented Feb. 2, 1892.

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A TTUH/VE VS mi Noam: Perms c UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FREDERIoK w. SIMONS, or PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR or ONE-HALFTo CARRIE wILsoN, or sAMn PLACE.

METHOD OF KNITTING AND FORMING HOSE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 468,212, datedFebruary 2, 1892.

Application filed September 2, 1891. Serial No. 404,561. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FREDERICK W. SIMONS, residing at Philadelphia,(Frankford,) Philadelphia county, State of Pennsylvania, have 5 Inventeda new and useful Improvement in Methods of Knitting and Forming Hose, ofwhich the following is a specification.

My invention is in the nature of an improved method of knitting andforming hose,

[ whereby the sock or stocking has its heel, foot,

and toe knit continuously on a circular-knitting machine withoutremoval, transfer, or addition of any fabric knit on any other machine,and whereby also the heel is knit continuously with the foot, and isafterward out,

readjusted, and looped together, as hereinafter fully described.

Figure 1 is a side View of the foot or lower portion of the stocking ascompleted. Fig. 2

is a view of the foot as it leaves the knittingmachine and ready to beout and looped together, and Fig. 3 is a view of the same parts out andwith the adjoining edges brought together for the looper.

Any ordinary circular seamless knittingmachine will suffice in carryingout my invention.

In proceeding to knit a stocking, the leg is knitted in the usual or anyapproved way until the turn of the instep indicated by the dotted line iis reached. Then about one half of the needles of the circular-knittingmachine are thrown out of operation. These needles thrown out are (seeFig. 2) the ones which knit 5 the instep or part of the stocking from bon one side around the line 1' across the instep to the point I) 011 theother side. The knitting with the other half of the needles beingcontinued, it forms the heel portion (Z with a detached o circumscribedor puckered inner selvage edge I? c. In knitting the heel portion a rowof fashioning-stitches Z is knit in to give roundness to the heel, thisfashioning being eifected'by lifting out of operation one needle at atime 7 until the desired shape is obtained. Inknitting this fashioningin the heel portion, one side of the heel is knit at a time-f. 6, oneside of the heel is knit with about a quarter of the needles until thefashioning is complete. Then this quarter of the needles is thrown outand the other side of the heel is then knit in the same way until theline of fashioning is complete on that side. In knitting the heel theloops are never transferred from one needle to another, but the webbinggradually becomes narrower as each needle is thrown out of operation,thus fashioning or shaping the heel. In other words, when a needle islifted out of operation the fabric produced from the needles left inoperation will be narrower by one loop than it would be if the needlehad been left in operation. After the fashioning on both sides of theheel is complete the knitting is continued with that half of theneedleswhich knit the heel portion until about twenty courses are knit.As soon as the heel has been thus knit, the needles, which were thrownout at the Hush i, are brought into action again, and the knitting thenproceeds with all the needles until the seamless foot is formed. Whenthe knitting has progressed as far as the transverse dotted line 7&3 hthe change is then made for knitting the too. For this purpose one halfof the needles are lifted out of action, (the half that knits either ofthe triangular tongues in Fig. 2.) Assuming that it is the needlesknitting on line 7L 71/2 or top tongue that are thrown out, then theknitting on the line 7:. 7L proceeds back and forth, and at every courseSo a needle is lifted out of action to give the fashioning or taper, asshown, by the row of fashioning-stitches 7). 7&2 until the tongue isbrought to a point. This fashioning of the toe is effected by the samemanipulation of the use 8 5 dles employed in fashioning the heel. Thenthe needles which have knit this portion are lifted out of action andthe knitting on the line 7t 71 proceeds in a similar way, lifting aneedle out of action at each course until the go top tongue is fashionedto a tapering shape by the row of fashioning-stitches h h. This beingfinished to a like point, the needles are then all thrown into actionand the knitting proceeds with the full set of needles to knit the fullwidth of the foot for a short distance, forming that portion of thefabric lying. between the marginal line f c g and the row offashioning-stitches h 7t 72.2. The knitting operation is then completeand the stocking is I00 removed from the machine. The next step is tosever the heel portion by cutting on the line a b, Fig. 2, and to turnthe heel portion down, as in Fig. 3. The severed edge a h,

then, when properly trimmed, forms the bottom of the heel, the propercurvature being iven to the ball of the heel by the row offashioning-stitches Z. The selvage edge b c, Fig. 2, is by the sameoperation straightened out and brought vertical and into adjacentposition to the cut edge a b of the foot, Fig. 3, and it only remains tofasten together the two bottom edges of the heel a b and to unite theselvage edge Z) c to the cut edge a b, which operation is eifected bythe ordinary operation of looping the edges together on a looper. Thetwo united edges to b then form the heel-seam h s, Fig. 1, and the twoedges 0 b b a form the blind side seam s s, Fig. 1. The two edges 6 fand e g of the toe are then brought together, as in Fig. 3, and arelooped together in a similar manner to form the toesea-nits, (seen inFig. 1,) which comes upon the side of the foot, where it produces nodiscomfort to the wearer.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secureby Letters Patent, is

1., The'method of knitting and formin ghose, which consists in firstknitting the leg portion, then discontinuing the knitting of the instep,continuing theknittin g of the heel portion to form the detachedcircumscribed selvageredge b c, then resuming the knitting of the instepalong with the heel and knitting the foot and toe portion, then cuttingthe heel portion from the foot and turning it down to a position at;right angles and trimming the heel portion, and finally looping togetheror uniting the out edges of the heel and also the selvage edge of theheel and cut edge of the foot, substantially as shown and described.

2 The method of knitting andforminghose, which consists in firstknitting the leg portion, then discontinuing the knitting of the instep,continuing the knitting ot" the heel portion to form the detachedcircumscribed selvage edge I) c, introducing aseries offashioning-stitches Z to give roundness to the heel, then resuming theknitting of the instep and heel together to form the foot and toe',th'en=' cutting the heel from the foot online a b, then turning the heeldown and trimming it, and uniting certain of its edges to each oth'erandcertain to the foot, substantially as shown and described.

FREDERICK W. SIMONS. Witnesses:

JoHN SHALLCROSS, WALLACE WILsoN.

